consultant to the pentagon and he was from colorado springs. so i said, oh, colorado springs. are you people just terrified out there because of all those murders? he said murders? why, what ever do you mean? and i said, you know, all those murders, all those people coming home from iraq and shooting people up. and he said, no, those are just those guys on the other side of town. that however did you find out about that? and i said, the internet. >> they do that on the other side of town. >> were going to have to call an end to this. >> as a veteran, all the movies are trash. the only one worth watching is a documentary. and if you want to see what

combat is did it is like in today's environment, it's young men in combat. >> brigades took over from the brigade you took over. >> thank you very much. thank you all of you for coming. this is an appreciation of you, for you being here tonight. thank you very much. >> thank you. [applause] ..

taking your phone calls, e-mails and tweets sunday at noon eastern on c-span2. watch previous in-depth programs on booktv.org where you can find the entire weekend schedule. >> about five years ago a got a letter from a teacher that i had in a grade in chicago. she had saved one of my papers that i have written about thanksgiving. she really likes the secret and she mailed it to me and said i kept this all these years because it was one of the best papers i had gotten from a student. i read that paper and i was going -- i was really good! [talking over each other] >> the blessing -- >> what it meant to me. [talking over each other]

>> it is in some box with all my memorabilia. anyway apparently i did write pretty well and had a teacher that said you need to join the sides of the newspaper. i have never thought of writing. i actually liked acting. i was a lot of plays and things like that which i am grateful i was now because that helped me as a television broadcaster. learning how to use and project your voice and not being afraid to get in front of people. i joined the newspaper and they gave me a column called decision news. they were called divisions. my job was to go around to all the homerooms and interview people about what was going on. [talking over each other] >> kind of a gossip column who

won the spelling bee or the science fair. i enjoyed so much having access to go around these rooms and talk to the teachers and the students before anybody else knew them and then to write them up and see my byline. oh my goodness! [talking over each other] >> it is kind of a heady experience. >> so you make the decision -- [talking over each other] >> i loved it. [talking over each other] >> people coming up to me to tell me information. i loved the serious child who read a lot. it all worked. to reading, writing, access,

being able to ask questions and get answers, just wonderful. just what i wanted to. do i know anybody black? did i know anybody -- white woman that was a reporter or any woman? all i knew was lois lane from superman and brenda starr from the comic books. i knew there was a chicago tribune and chicago sun times and daily news and all kinds of great newspapers in chicago at the time and my parents were avid newspaper readers. people were covering things about murders and fires and politics, and you'd tell your

parents -- [talking over each other] >> what do they say? >> silly girl. silly little girl. you can't be a journalist. women don't do that and certainly black women don't do that. you can always have a teaching job but we don't want to spend tuition and it was a struggle to get the tuition together and you need to be a teacher or a nurse or social worker. and in the early 60s what they aspired to. i don't want to do that. i want to do this. errors a lot of slamming of my

door. and again, and it was not going to be happy or a good person to live with. i got this opportunity. they supported me. i thank god for having supported those who went to go to college but made sure me and my sister did. >> at some point we thirty-second know, when you apply to northwestern. >> it was right outside chicago and that is where we want to go but at the time it was the best journalism school in the country. i had great grades. i told you i was in all kinds of activity. i had a b plus, a-average from high-school and i apply to

northwestern and litter did 9 note there was a quota system going on. they acknowledged it now. there was a quota of the number of jews they talking to the college. he told me i would never get a job working for the chicago tribune. a new what was going to happen and i got the rejection notice a few weeks later. we regret to inform you that -- i remember those first words. little tiny letter. i was like -- and my parents didn't say we told you so. >> and you end up graduating --

>> university of [talking over each other] [talking over each other] >> you did well in school. >> there were 60 graduates. they had a job at grady relation--graduation time. >> you did not have a child again. >> at the chicago public policy from the time i was 15. here i am with a degree. my college summer job. i was disappointed but felt something was going to happen. i got this call from schools,

and wind up an internship. didn't look good for the university to have one black student who did not have a job so he worked very hard to make that happen and that is how i ended up in it. >> you can watch this and other programs online at booktv.org. on the go. after words is available by pod cast through itunes. visit booktv.org and click pod cast on the upper left of the page. select which one you would like to download and listen to afterwards while you travel. >> the story of thomas allen has written a new book fighting for the king and america's first civil war. who were the tories? >> people who didn't want to have independence from england. they started to talk. it was all political up until concord and lexington.

and then there was a time when you could take the position being against the revolution and not get into too much trouble but wants the declaration of independence comes along you have two americas and the america that declared independence is fighting the americans who were not fighting. they allied themselves with british troops and former military units, 150 military units and they go and fight. uniforms and weapons, the holding. win the battles take place, the british who have a grand tradition of keeping a history of regiments kind of look with disdain on to these colonials they are fighting with and as a result you get a lot of british descriptions of battles but it

is hard to find descriptions by the loyalists as they call themselves. when the war comes to an end and they have to tell the british commission on loyalists what they did, then there are a whole bunch of documents that describe what they are doing and what they were doing was killing other americans. it is a very interesting lost story. >> what percentage of americans that were tories and where did the name come from? >> the contemporary estimate by john adams was running around 25%, or one third. modern estimates take it to the same parameter. so you have a population of 1,200,000 and you have somewhere

between 80 to 100,000. in terms of who leads, you can kind of get numbers about who goes up in canada but it runs in that area. it is an amazing story. the people who don't want a revolution at the end of the war have to go somewhere so they are exiled essentially. the british give them a lot of land in canada. they found canada and so you have a country formed by revolutionaries and the country up there that is formed by non revolutionaries. that is the basis for the canadian character. look the basis for the american character. revolutionaries and non revolutionaries. >> where did the term puris come from? >> it is lost in antiquity but probably it was an irish term

for never do wells. it was used in british politics, parliamentary politics before the revolution. and still is. it still has essentially the same meaning. even in parliament there would be a split between how much do you support the king's ministers and how much do you support the opposition? so they were the tories and when the revolution begins they inherit that name. and the rebels or the patriots or sons of liberty all get their own name and that is the way a lot of the politics starts but then when the guns are fired you have people who are sticking up guns. >> that was a preview of thomas allen's new book cory's:fighting for the king in america's first civil war. booktv covered mr. allen in a

logger event. if you would like to watch the event go to booktv.org. use the search function in the upper left-hand corner and you can watch the full event on line. >> you are watching booktv on c-span2. forty-eight hours of nonfiction authors and books every weekend. >> from new york city, the story of the migration from the king and higher in world war ii. they listed as the chinese educational missions and to the united states to learn the innovations of the west and return to china with new ideas. this is 35 minutes. >> before i start to tell you the story of these remarkable men, i would like to tell a short story of a far less remarkable man, myself.

i was born in televisa proposal is real. when i was 10 years old my mother took me to spent the summer in a mysterious greek exotic far away land filled with rich and splendid treasures. i am talking about new jersey. when i got to new jersey and attended summer camp for a couple months i made a bunch of startling discoveries. some discoveries were small like the fact that jews previously believed to reside in fruit actually come in a box or that there was a channel on tv that had nothing but cartoons. other discoveries were significantly larger like baseball. even with my jeans and cartoon addled 10-year-old mind i knew that there was something profoundly american about baseball. a game which you could strike out 60% or 70% of the time and

still go back and win. ten years later i lived -- moved to new york. a couple years ago my wife and i -- i was out of graduate school -- we decided to spend some time in china and here we are in beijing in one of these quintessentially beijing, hazy, rainy afternoons and nothing to do except stare at the very small television with exactly one channel in our hotel room and we see a picture of this boiler. the picture was clearly taken in the nineteenth century. and had no idea there were chinese students in yale

university in the nineteenth century. i started researching the story and discovered that these remarkable young men whose story i will soon tell you wrote a lot of letters and kept journals and when i read their turtles and their letters i couldn't help but feel an immediate sense of tremendous tremendous empathy because like the my came from a different culture. i came here to attend school and like them i felt i had to worked really hard to understand what the culture was about and to fit in and like them i couldn't help but feel no matter how hard our pride -- tried there will always be some 4 nests and on that cheerful note let me tell you the story of unfortunate sons. it begins in 1872 or rather a few years before in china. china in the second half of the nineteenth century is teetering on the verge of disaster.

it controls about 10% of the world's territory and a fifth of the world's people and yet it is a country that has not yet industrialized and where the population growth is extreme and rapid. by the 1860s or 1840s china reaches four fifty million people and that is a lot of mouths to feed. there are rebellions. there are all kinds of signs of corruption. seeing this, the western powers never miss an opportunity. they say here is an easy target and begin play in a game known as carving the chinese mellon which means using either their ambassadors or their flotillas, forcing china into all kinds of concessions. china understand unless it does something really fast and really drastic its future is very bleak. the decision they come to is to send a group of young chinese

boy is to be educated in america. this task, they had just the right men. he grew up in the south of china, educated in a seminary. settle -- western cemetery and the rev. was a teacher was called back to the united states. young win decided to come here. he became the first-ever chinese man to graduate from a american university and here he is graduating in 1854. going back to china, brimming with the audacity of hope. he is thinking to himself this is an opportunity to remake the country. i had this amazing education at yale. all i have to do is make sure more boys like myself have the opportunity to have the same experience. but china is a different place. he finds a small house in his

native village and across the street from that house odd things are happening. i told you before china has four fifty million people around that time but i didn't say that they were governed by a bureaucracy of slightly over 40,000 clerks. you think our system is broken? since it is a small number to govern a very large number of people corruption was absolute or very prevalent and each local governor had tremendous powers and the governor controlling the region where young -- yung wing lived would accuse you of that or some other petty crime and condemn you immediately to death. if you had the money to prove yourself innocent very well. if not you were executed. and across the street from yung wing's house for the execution ground across from his house the bodies were piling high.

yung wing looks at this and shutters. he says something radical needs to happen. he leaves his village and goes to shanghai and works hard to become a wealthy merchant. by the time the people in the forbidden city are ready to move day understand that this guy, the first ever chinese man educated in america is their man. they come to him and they say we don't want anything from the americans except for their technology. all we want is their science. that is all you have to make sure of. yung wing knows that things are more complicated so he puts together a mission. he selects 120 boy is the youngest of which is seven. and aboard the spirit of the

canes, in san francisco there were of course a lot of chinese people at the time. these are the hard-working men who built the transcontinental railroad. the boys when they arrived don't care about their compatriots. they have seen what is the likes of which they have never seen before. and most excitingly they see trains which they call fire engines. they're happy about this. they're ecstatic, and to new england and their homes, on the way they are reportedly robbed by remnants of jesse james's gained and detect -- they have these quintessential dime store novel adventures but nothing prepares them for the real adventure they are about to have which is the adventures they begin their lives in new

england. when they are arriving they understand very quickly that life is going to be very strange. a land, disembark, have these shoes they wear loyalty to the emperor and long flowing silk gowns as customary and all the american kids called them chinese girls which makes them very upset. in china, when they left home and said goodbye to their fathers and mothers for 15 year journey, they made the most emotional gesture confucian gesture would allow which is a series of three very deep bows. when they reach here their adoptive mothers grabbed them and hug them and kissed them which modify them to know end. the culture seems very strange. this doesn't last long. within a few months ago and will definitely within the year these

kids are thriving. they pick up horseback riding, they pick up riflery, they start their own baseball team which they wonderful called the oriental and they are quite good. they even change their names. his best friend becomes breezy jack. we have cold fish charlie, and a bunch of quintessentially american schoolboy nicknames. the boys are doing well. their young men in a thriving nation. in 1876 four years after they arrive there invited to be guests of honor at the first centennial celebration which is the huge international expo in philadelphia. there they meet alexander graham bell and his new invention the telephone and taste a lovely condiment developed by john hines called catch up.

and they meet president grant and mark twain, they have a helluva time. but that time unfortunately is not to last for long. a host of factors are in play for as to make sure that the boys's adventures cut short. in america in the west anti chinese sentiment is on the rise. the railroad is completed, there is no more work, there is rampant unemployment and the chinese are the first to feel these burdens. in 1882, chinese exclusion act is passed signifying this trend. in china too the mandarins of the forbidden city are growing increasingly suspicious of americans and by 1881 they say party is over. time to recall these boys back to china. mark twain writes letters on their behalf.

mark twain rights new york and convinces president -- former president grant to write a letter on their behalf. nothing helps. in 1881 they get back, ship and sailed to shanghai. they are not altogether said. is true they left behind friends. most of them didn't get to graduate from college and they keep telling themselves this is not the end of the world because before we left all those years ago when we were younger we were promised that upon our return we would be the new mandarins of china. we would be the new boards of the land. they stand on the deck imagining the welcoming throngs that would greet them at the port in shanghai. they are greeted of course by policemen. they are accused of being spies. they say we are scholars. imagine how strange it must have seemed to the local police. scholars for them were sedentary surly men with long flowing

robes and spoke perfect clerical chinese. these boys could hardly speak any chinese at all. they have weird language and were dressed not in the long flowing robes but in western made suits. it took about a weekend have to cleared this misunderstanding and they were released from prison. but the troubles were very far from over. instead of getting these plum jobs they were promised they were sent to a very low the jobs cleaning decks on navy ships and things of that nature. for ten years they had to work very hard to prove their mettle. to climb up the mandarin ladder. and climb up they did. theirself confidence and the resolve they learned on the baseball field and shooting round of yale and mit and columbia and other universities proved themselves very worthy and they became leaders in pretty much all fields of modern

china's growth and industrialization. terp half wasn't always easy. one young man who had learned mining at yale university came to a small village in the south of china and started to do his job and was sort of assault by the local residents who said this is very bad funds way. you are upsetting the spirit of the ancestors. no one at yale said anything about the spirits of the ancestors. at first he brushed them off but then he understood the concerns were very serious so he had to do two things. the first was to invent machinery to mind at night which is a very ingenious for the time. the second is to learn how to reconcile his desire for progress and work with the local traditions. of the villages and towns. all the boys, now young men had

to the same. the times they lived through in the third part of this book, were absolutely fascinating times. china through the boxer rebellion through all kinds of wars with another's japan and other nations was a nation deeply changing and by 1912 it was ready for the biggest change of all. millennia of imperial rule were coming to an end and the first-ever chinese republic was being born. when that republic was born these young men became modern china's founding fathers. the prime minister of that republic was a graduate, the man who figured out how to build railroads across china was a graduate. the father of the chinese navy was a graduate and the university which is considered china's harvard, also a

graduate. here were all these young men walking around the forbidden city talking to each other in english saying things like that's right, boy. it will be okay. this was the highlight of their lives. they were expecting that sooner or later china will thrive. they were heartbroken. china soon fell into a series of warlord is some and after that chinese -- japanese invention and after that civil war and communism. has these successful men turned old and frail they watched as everything they had worked to achieve was crumbling. so here we are many decades later walking around china reading about these boys legal reading their riding and the question we ask ourselves when

we wrote this book is is there's a happy or a sad story? does it have a happy ending or a tragic one? the more we thought about it the more we realize that although they died 70 or 80 years ago the story of the fortunate sons is not yet over. the lesson that they teach us, the challenges that they had to overcome our the challenges that still today we have to overcome. these are the challenges of america and china. having to learn to speak to one another not in the language of competition and conquest and mistrust but the language of cooperation and collaboration. a lesson by the way judging from the president whose recent visit to the white house was increasingly well learned. these lessons look that chinese and american understanding that china will never become america,

global america become china. instead each culture has to represent -- has to respect each other's culture, each other's beliefs and traditions. and work together to make sure that this story indeed has a happy ending. in this i truly hope happy note i would love to turn this into a conversation. [applause] >> thank you very much. please. yes, man? [inaudible] >> chinese or journals in english or chinese? >> let me tell you a funny story. when we started working on this book we learned that there were journals and here we are sitting in a coffee shop in new york

city and i say just our luck. little here we are stumbling on this great story, these kids left behind all these journals and all these journals are buried in some basement in shanghai and are all in chinese and we will never figure them out or find them and we start doing what people do nowadays which is googleing laughing like crazy and discover the connecticut historical society has and addition, sothe thing like crazy and discover the connecticut historical society has and addition, so i called the library -- -- to you have a contact person in shanghai? the diaries of course -- she says i am looking at the diaries right now. an hour-and-a-half away, wherever you want to look at them. we raise over. the diaries are all in english. a very interesting conflict.ce .

the diaries are all in english. a very interesting conflict. i don't speak chinese. to our relief these young boys for large periods of time didn't speak any chinese either. it was difficult for them. when they got back it took five years to really regain the language and when they spoke to which other which was frequent because they were a quick it was always in english. we made out okay. yes? >> i am a chinese translator and a writer. i was wondering in your research why did the chinese students assimilate and thrive as easily as they did? >> that is an excellent question and one that really kept us occupied for much time. one explanation is because they were boys. they were very young when they

came here and they never had a chance to grow in the chinese system. most of them never attended anything beyond the very rudimentary level of chinese education so this culture was everything they knew. the second explanation which is more metaphysical that i may have is american culture was really wonderful to them. in china those of them who had gone to school, there is a famous eleventh century poem by the emperor who said the young boy who wants to be someone turns away from the window, sits down and reads his. here they come to america where a young boy who wants to be someone gets on the baseball field and plays ball, gets on a horse and rides. will goes dancing with girls, is allowed to look his elders in the i. this is a revolution for them. they were extremely happy with it. the third thing i would say is they came at a time when the

country was thriving. they really saw the heartland transformed and there was energy they felt acutely that made them want to learn and excel. we had the good fortune of getting older school transcripts within two years. these kids were completely complemented in class. >> how were they chosen? how were the children chosen to come here? >> how were they chosen? initially they put the mission together and yung wing thought this was the offer of and lifetime. a tour to the united states. he soon learned that wasn't the case. there was extreme anti-western prejudice in china mostly because all the westerners the chinese had seen were conquerors

and abusers. people distributed stories that americans, christians worship a god so evil he had to be killed and eaten because he was so wicked. when yung wing offered this deal to prominent families of china most of them said no faint you. we will pass on this. in addition it is a very hard deal for the chinese boy to except because confucianism is so much about respect for elders and family traditions that to tell young boy you're going to leave behind your parents for 50 years, that is especially hard in a confucian culture. yung wing went back to his own village. many of the boy is chosen were his family members or sons of friends and put together -- he chose the best of the best. almost selected at random. the empire had some rules. if you were chosen and were not

gracefully names they changed your name so it would sound better to american ears but at the end they got a very good group of people. >> i really love the book. upon reading it i thought i wonder if there's a statue to yung wing. he is amazing in shanghai when he slapped the scottish person. the stories you told so amazing. i was wondering, there were a couple boys who decided not to go back to china and they converted to christianity and stayed in america. did you have a chance to interview their descendants? are they still familiar with their great grandfathers? >> let me say one thing first. there is a statue to yung wing. it is right here in the city. there is the yung wing school in chinatown which has a small

memorial to yung wing. in china especially in southern china the little village that he grew up in was raised and made way for the town of eight million people. there are many statues and schools mayn't after him and many graduates of this mission. in china this is a well-known story and a very optimistic one of how you can really work to bridge the cultural gaps. as for the people who stayed behind there were a couple of these boys who thought this is too good to pass on and a couple of them hopped a train just before they headed back to san francisco to sail back to shanghai to get to the converted to christianity and never went back. their fates are not happy. they learned that when they became american citizens as opposed to members of the international exchange goodwill delegation, racism and zina

phobia hit them hard and there ends were not well matt. but as for your other question, about the students -- the generations -- the next generation, we have spoken to several of these young men's descendants and it is amazing to learn how many of them lived either here or in canada and how many of them, even those who live in china followed in the footsteps of their fathers and attended yale, columbia but personal mit and princeton. they were very generous. they opened family archives. that was a sort of heartfelt discovery for us. yes? [inaudible] >> their children and their children's children made it and

went to yale and mit and harvard. >> the ones who came here had the misfortune. the ones who came -- had a hard time but their children went to yale and harvard. the ones who came here died very young. one died as a child a couple months after he decided to stay. he was adopted by this beautiful family in connecticut who had lost a son in the civil war and this young man was their second gift from god. he died of flu a few months after he hopped on a train. another one was murdered in new york city. really grisly and bad faith. but those who came back, many of them send their children to be educated in america. these children came back to china. a lot of third and fourth generation lived here.

any other questions? >> my great-grandfather is in your book. >> oh my! >> i don't speak chinese. my last name is jane. you have expelled two way is. hy was known as great grandpa tie. >> there is a note in translation. we had a difficult time. i would like to talk after reading and here lot more about this remarkable man who is prominently featured in the book. we had a difficult time with the

transliteration because every name was spelled three different ways according to the names. mostly we followed the advice of our translator and torque the name or spelling that would have been most well known in public records and documents in this country or in china so i think we went with cai but also put it as tie. stick around. i would like to hear more. >> i am on a mission from my father who is in new jersey who read the book and thinks it is fantastic and is wondering if there will be a film adaptation. [laughter] >> tell your father i am extremely hopeful. i am so thrilled that he liked the book. this is making me blush. it is fantastic. thank you. i believe there was one more question? >> i was wondering how well the

story is known in china? are they still talking about -- another question is some of the boys who went over to the u.s. to america were very young. they were as young as 6 or 10 years old. how did they find this adaptation to america? >> i will answer the first question briefly. they are very well known in china because many of them -- 120, a good 45 are tremendously impressive men. the prime minister, the engineer, the diplomat, the man who convinced britain to -- men of many accomplishments. as to your other question, how did they survive this strenuous journey to america? we are talking about new england in the nineteenth century.

good old puritan tradition. you were sitting around the dinner table you need to know how to call what you eat in english. under that system of education your learn english very fast. >> by the time they got back to china, they were still quite young. they were 20 years google turtle 23 years old and could they make a difference in china? >> by the time they got to shine as a% to all these menial tasks. it took from ten years to come into their own as men. when they did, did they! they really made a difference. they really brought with them

off a fresh spirit and self confident attitude that made a great change which by the way is the same spirit icy everywhere in modern china. the same spirit they're trying to capture with a lot of respect for tradition, doing things their own way but understanding that here in lies progress. >> some of it is analogous to the european migration to america. around the turn of the century. and all of eastern europe decided they wouldn't stay there anymore and they would come to this country and they also because of the same thing as the chinese have, send the children have to be educated and all of this education to get somewhere. >> absolutely. >> i am not surprised -- i am

not surprised at all because this has always been the lifeblood of america. the immigrants who came and to whom it was very important to get some place. >> and now you know. the lifeblood of china too. i am affiliated with new york university who nowadays are completing a joint educational project with shanghai. a couple months ago we had a lovely delegation of people here with tremendous cultural exchange. i truly believe, unlikely for me for optimism i truly believe this is the future. i want to thank you for coming. it has been a pleasure. thank you. [applause] >> booktv is on twitter. follow as for regular updates on our programming on nonfiction books and authors.

twitter.com/booktv. >> president obama issued a proclamation that this is read across america day. [cheers and applause] >> all right president obama! there we go. we are grateful that he did that and especially grateful that secretary duncan and mrs. obama are here. let's hear it! [cheers and applause] >> suggs like you are pretty excited. what are you excited about? thank you. we are also excited about reading right? in our hearts we read all the time. the president -- he reads of much he knows facts about

everything. so you want to be fact people? you have to read in order to do that. we will start by reading something fun. secretary duncan and i were big dr. seuss fans. do you want to talk about your reading exploits? >> we have two children at home who are older than most of you guys. every dr. seuss books we read, we would be rich. it is a great book and the more you are reading for fun at home, turned those tvs off at night, just reading, not just for homework but for pleasure you will become lifelong reader that you can do anything you want to do. my parents were a little bit crazy. guess how many tvs we had in our house? we had zero. i had to sleep at my friend's house to watch tv and instead my parents read to me and my brothers and sister every night.

we didn't always understand that but did instill those with a love of reading and we are thankful for that. the more you read for pleasure forever whatever it might be, history, adventure, xbox, nonfiction, just read for fun. if you do that you will do well the rest of your lives. want to hear a story? green eggs and ham. ever heard that one before? i am sam. i am sam. sam hy em. sam i am, that sam i am, i do not like that sam i am. the light green eggs and ham? >> i do not like them, sam i am. i do not like green eggs and ham. >> would you like them here or there? >> i would not like them here or there. i would not like them anywhere. i did not like green eggs and ham. i do not like them, sam i am.

>> would you like them a house? would you like them with a mouse? >> i do not like them in a house. i do not like them with a mouse. i deny glick them here or there. i do not like them anywhere. i do not like green eggs and ham. i do not like them, sam i am. >> would you eat them in a box? would you eat them with a fox? >> not in a box, not with a fox, not in a house. will not with a mouse. i would not even here or there. i would not eat them anywhere. i would not eat green eggs and ham. i do not like them, sam i am. >> would you, could you in a car? eat them, edam legal and here they are. >> i would not be able could not in a car. >> you may like and you will see. you may like the ministry. >> i would not the google could not in a tree bigger turtle not in a car. you let me be. i did not like any box, i did

not like them with a foxed not like them in a house leaders' unlike the not like an with a mouse google unlike did not like them here or there. i did not like them anywhere. i do not like them, san i am. >> a train, a train, a train. could you begin turtle with you on a train? >> not on a train, not in a tree, not in a car. let me be, i would not, could not in a box, with a fox, of one not eat them with an i did not like green eggs and ham. i do not like them because this and i am. >> in the dark? would you, could you in the dark? >> i would not, could not in the dark. >> would you in the rain? >> i would not could not in the rain, not in the dark google not

in a car or in a tree. i do not like them you see. not in a house or a box with a mouse click and i will not eat them here or there. i do not like them anywhere. >> you do not like green eggs and ham? >> i did not like them, sam and an m. >> would you the goat? >> would you on a boat? >> i will not with a goat. i will not in the rain, i will not eat them on a train, not in the dark, not in a tree, not in the park, let me be. i do not like in a box. eyewall 90 them in a house. i do not like the with a mouse. i will not be them here or there. i do not like them anywhere. i did not like green eggs and

ham. i don't like them, sam i am. >> you do not like them so you say? >> i am trying to tell you this. >> try them, try them and you may. >> if you let me be i will try them, you will see. >> area tryi you trying them? >> yes. >> i like green eggs and ham. i will leave them in a boat or with a goat. i will eat them in the rain and in the dark and on a train and in a car and in a tree. they are so good, so good you see. i will eat them in a box and i will eat them with a fox and i

will eat them in a house and i will eat them with a mouse and i will eat them here and there and i will eat them anywhere. anywhere! i love you, sam. i do like green eggs and ham. thank you, thank you, sam i am. >> give a round of applause. [applause] >> i love when they read green eggs and ham. i have some special guests for you. did do you think that might be? president obama is not here but someone else. the cat in that hat. good the cat in the hat be here? where is the catch in that hat? where? tell him to come out!

come out, cat in the hat! and who else? oh my! wow! look at that tale! all right! the catch in that had, thing one and thing two, all of us together. mrs. obama and secretary duncan and dr. billington. we want to do a reader's pledge with you. are you ready? raise your right hand. >> raise them high. >> when you hear me say something i want you to repeat after me nice and loud. are you ready? are you ready?

all right! i promise to read. >> i promise to read. >> each day and each night. >> each day and each night. >> i know it is the key. >> i know it is the key. >> to growing up right. >> to growing got right. >> i will read to myself. >> i will read to myself. >> i will lead to a crowd. it makes no difference. >> it makes no difference. >> if silent or loud. >> of silent or loud. >> i will read at my desk. >> i will read at my desk. >> at home and at school. on i beanbag or bad. >> on my been met or bad. >> by the fire or the pool. >> by the fire or the pool. >> each book that i read. >> each book that i read. puts smarts in my head. because brains grow more thought. >> grains grow more thought. >> the more they are fed.

so i take this oath. >> so i take this oath. >> to make reading my way. >> of feeding my brain. >> of feeding my brain. >> what it needs every day. >> what it needs every day. >> all right, clap your hands. >> steve early will be our guest on booktv.org at 6:30 eastern. the offer will discuss his book the civil war and u.s. labor. busboys and poets in washington d.c.. he details struggles within the labor movement in the last several years and offers strategies want moving forward. go to booktv.org on tuesday at 6:30 eastern. click on the watch icon and featured programs section of the page. >> coming up former british prime investor gordon brown